Brands Race 2nd April 2006

Off the line.

Wait for the red lights to go out, wait for them to go out. Hey, they have gone out! Opps I am supposed to be going now! Chris Seaman behind gets a great start and goes ahead before I am even out of first gear.
Into Paddock hill as turn one and I am trying to make sure I don't cause a turn 1 accident in my first race! Due to the cautious entry, Mike Field (who started next to me but must not have had a fantastic get away) and Mike Atkinson in the new Stuart Taylor Phasar (from 12th) come either side of me!

Turn two - all very close, I try an inside move on Mike Field but he closes the door. I keep with him down to Graham Hill bend and get a better run out and pull along side on the inside and past him at the chicane and the rain started to come down very heavily. From then on it was just sliding all the time :)

Lap 2 and pull up to the back of John Goodwin on the start/finish straight and into Paddock Hill bend. I tried an outside move on John at the hairpin, he gets sideways on the exit and I make a dive for the inside into Graham Hill bend, run a little deep but get good traction and hold on to 9th place. Entering into the next corners at the chicane, I get some massive understeer and enjoy a nice adventure over the grass while John retakes 9th.


Entering Lap 3 and I get a good run on John down the start/finish straight, keep with him up to the hairpin and watch as he does a pirouette on the exit of Graham Hill, handing 8th back to me.

Lap 4 and I am now behind Paul Haynes in the Class B R1 engined Stuart Taylor Phoenix who is close on the tail of Mike Atkinson in the new Stuart Taylor Phasar. By this stage the track is getting wetter and from the exit at Clearways all the way down the straight is full of wheelspin!

Lap 5 and Paul makes a dive down the inside of Mike unsuccessfully and I make up some distance on him, enough infact to get down the inside into the hairpin and then in the next corner Mike does a very artistic slide and I snatch 7th. So that means as we head into lap 6 that I am 3rd in class C with just Chris Seaman in front of me with Tim Gray out in the lead. Of course at this point I did no realise that but I knew I was making good progress for a rookie!

Unfortunately I was not making amazing progress in pulling out a large lead over Paul Haynes who had passed Mike and was on my tail. The changing conditions meant a few mistakes along the way in the next couple of laps and I had to start doing some defending into the slower corners. Thankfully the online racing I have done in the past definitely helped in where to position the car to stop being past but a small mistake on a couple of laps meant that Paul would sneak past at the hairpin and I would regain the position into Graham Hill bend that follows.

Within a few laps we were lapping other cars and the weather started to clear up a little, more fun in trying to work out the new grip levels with Paul on my tail as usual. In fact as the weather improved, he was able to use more of the R1's grunt.

Just after half distance in the race, Paul overtakes me at the end of the straight but then runs wide into Paddock hill and I re-take the place. I really did enjoy the close and fair racing we had throughout the meeting.

At this stage I was talking to myself and trying to get my head down to build out a lead so I could concentrate on the cars in front rather than behind. By lap 14, I was under the 1min lap time and pulling away from Paul Haynes each lap. In fact 4 out of my last 6 laps were in the 59's and not far off Tim's time ahead of me but not fast enough to make up any distance on him.


Lap 15 and I come up behind Pete Rope to lap him and run a little wide in Paddock hill so he un-laps himself but leaves the door open in to the hairpin. Just as I dive for the inside, he locks the rears under braking and slews sideways into the passenger side of my car which woke me up a little!

You can see on the picture at the bottom of the page, the tyre markes on my race number sticker. Oh and the trophy as well :)

As I entered lap 19 I could see the time to go was indicating this could be the last lap and towards the end of the lap I started to see Martin Brooks Phasar, lights ablaze heading my way. Just as I neared the start finish line, I backed off to let him lap me and save doing another lap. I was not going to catch Tim in that one lap and I thought the highest risk was going off so better to end it there on a rather high note! Cool down lap was fun, being right bend the winner, would have got some good coverage for the sponsors had I had any!

So third place in my first RGB race - not to bad, actually a lot better than I had imaged. I must admit to being rather chuffed, I wonder if I can keep it up at Snetterton in 2 weeks?